The Traditional Values Coalition claims that it will launch a series of class-action lawsuits against libraries that do not filter pornography from their computers (Help Us Protect Children from Library Porn and Pedophiles!). The Anaheim, Ca. based group is led by Rev. Louis P. Sheldon and generally focuses on opposition to homosexual civil liberties. Rev. Sheldon was most recently in the news for opposing spousal benefits for non-heterosexual couples following the World Trade Center attack. From Ernest Miller at LawMeme
I'm curious to see what legal basis they try to find - I recently wrote an article, Lawfully Surfing the Net: Disabling Public Library Internet Filters to Avoid More Lawsuits in the United States for First Monday (April 2004) that shows IMHO (in my humble opinion), that there really aren't any viable bases for such a suit. I'm talking about pure speech, not behavior issues.
p.s. All libraries revile pedophiles and virtually no public libraries want porn. The issue is HOW to get rid of it without overblocking sites like librarylaw blog which just used the word "porn" and is thus subject to erroneous blocking.
Thanks for setting it straight - I went back and looked and it just says Jan without a date. I think I'd found it via a google alert.
Finally - a new reader/commentor! I was starting to feel like one of those millions of bloggers that the NYT just wrote about that no one reads. Commentors are what makes blogs interesting (and correct errors like this one - thanks).
Posted by: Mary | May 29, 2004 at 05:30 PM
Huh? Isn't that article from January *2002*?
Posted by: Seth Finkelstein | May 29, 2004 at 04:56 PM